This deck is the most obvious one you can draft. It reminds me of infect, in someways, that you literally just windmill every card that says "Bloodthirst" on it. There are some key enablers that make this deck possible, and this is probably not news to anyone. Tormented Soul and Goblin Fireslinger are key 1-drops in this deck. Each one has their place in the corresponding B/x or R/x bloodthirst deck, but the reason this deck is so potent, is you have access to both. The best common bloodthirst creatures are Red, and unfortunately, any red deck wants to run them, not just the bloodthirst decks. This can be problematic, so I've found cutting Red in pack one to be more important than black. Key cards are Blood Ogre and Gorehorn Minotaur. The two drop slot is full of options, and nearly any R/B creature is great here, both because you want a dude that can attack (on the play) and activate your turn 3 guys, but also because you simply want to be applying pressure every turn. The two drop bat is surprisingly good in bloodthirst, both because he is an evasive guy to get in damage early on, and once you have your enablers active a 2/2 flier for 2 is obviously very strong. The removal suite is spicy in these colors, and you should have no shortage of access to what Red has to offer, between Shock, Incinerate and Chandra's Outrage, combined with Doom Blade, you should be able to fit in 3-4 removal spells at a minimum, but only beneath that threshold would I really go as low as to take Sorin's Thirst. This card is fine, but the BB requirement narrows you out of amazing red cards like Chandra's Outrage and the Minotaur. If your deck turns out to be heavier Black, then I might choose to run it over an outrage, but x/4's are rampant in this format, and the outrage does a lot of work.
This is not a fringe deck, so typically you'll start by selecting one of those two colors, and only move into the second one when its apparent that it's open. The uncommon bloodthirst guys in both colors are good signals that its open, as are the removal spells. Luckily, most of the Red guys are good in any deck, so I'm more often goign to start in Red and add black if I'm lucky. If I'm in Red, i might hope to table the vanilla 4/4, for example. Just solid Red dudes should be enough to get the job done.
Cute angle: you always have the option of running the Act of Treason/Swarm combo in this deck, and I suggest it. I play the swarm in this deck no matter what, as it allows you to dodge Mind Controls, opposing Act of Treasons, as well as get value out of pacified guys in a color combination that normally can't deal with enchantments. Act of treason is a fine card in this deck too, even with out an abundance of Swarms. I don't normally suggest running more Threatens than Swarms, but if you have no Swarms, you can typically deal with having 1 threaten. Sometimes just moving a blocker and adding an attacker is just enough to push through. In previous sets, It's been pretty underwhelming without the sac-outlet, but here its servicible if it allows you to apply enough pressure. That being said, the skeleton is fine in this deck too, but not amazing. It's nice to drop him on T2 on the play so you can activate your bloodthirst guys if your opponent can't get a blocker down, but his value increases with Swarms in your deck, so it can turn into an expensive (while evasive) shade. Speaking of Shades, don't play that 4 mana flying shade. It's just bad. You'd rather leave your mana for adding more dudes to the table, instead of trading with a mediocre creature and losing a 4-drop.
Interesting note: I've splashed Stinger Spider in this deck a couple of times and it's great. Many times it means killing a griffin sentinel (which is actually pretty annoying) and getting in there, while preventing any sort of counter attack. The worst matchup for this deck is U/W both because of evasive threats and fat blockers, but this guy can even the tide. I'm not suggesting that this guy is a necessity, but this is one of the decks where I'm very happy to splash a 3rd color for a solid 2-for-1 guy.
There's really not much exciting to say about this archetype, because there's lots of ways you can build it. It can be all in aggro, or more mid-rangey. The uncommons you peel are going to determine what direction to go. Fireballs? Volcanic Dragons? Your deck can be a bit slower, and use cards like Firefiend to trade on the ground to give you time to get to your bigger bombs. The more removal you have, the better off you are to go with bigger hitters, using removal to pick off threats and planning to simply outclass their creatures as soon as possible. the 4/4 backbreaker giant is great in these decks, as he's great on both offense and defense.
This is your standard "Core-Set" auto-build deck, and any experience you have drafting will carry you a ways with this archetype, just be cognicent of your curve and creature count at all times. don't underestimate the value of the common 2 power beaters in both colors, Child of Night is a serious upgrade over the last two coresets, as it is a trump in the mirror match, and a goblin piker on its own is just fine in a more aggressive version of this deck. Manic Vandal is maindeckable if you aren't running any artifacts, and is a strong sideboard option even if you are. The Onyx mage is amazing as it makes your guys mostly unblockable, making bloodthirst quite easy to achieve, even late in the game with a stalled board. I'm not a big fan of Goblin Arsonist, but if you're in a pinch he can do some work. He is a very very poor replacement for tormented ghoul and fire slinger. The slower versions of R/B really aren't even necessarily "bloodthirst" decks, but the Red Bloodthirst guys are fine even with out the bonus. That's what makes this deck a fairly safe archetype to move into early, is the deck can be molded to be either a hyper aggro bloodthirst focused deck, or on the other end of the spectrum a full on control deck utilizing Mind Rots, and removal to buy time into fatty boom-booms like Titans, dragons or demons. Also remember Sengir Vampire is in this set, and he'll go into pretty much any variation of this deck you can build. The question is whether he's the top of your curve, or the middle of your curve as you work up to 6 or 7 mana.
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